ITV boss Kevin Lygo made the announcement at the Edinburgh Television Festival where he explained: "We’ll find someone to stand by his side.

"Dec's doing the jungle and... he'll do it with somebody."

Revealing that he has already got someone in mind, the ITV chief briefly joked that he was going to send Piers Morgan into the Australian outback to join Dec.

I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here: Ant will not be heading to the Australian jungle with Dec [ITV]

"Yes I have [decided who that person is?]. It's going to be Piers Morgan... no!

"No I don't know it could be Jeremy Corbyn I don't know who it is but, erm, I can't say," The Sun reported him saying to the audience at the event.

Despite not giving too much away about Ant McPartlin's mystery replacement, Kevin insisted that it will be a host who is already well known.

The TV boss said: "I don't see it as our primary function is to bring on the new talent and I think it can be counter-productive.

I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here: Scarlett Moffatt has been tipped to present the show with Dec [Instagram/Scarlett Moffatt]

"If I was an agent and I had an exciting new presenter I'd be quite worried about putting them into the white heat of the spotlight of a big show on ITV frankly if you don't get above four million viewers it's not great."

Ant, who was charged with drink driving in March, released a statement where he explained that he was going to focus on his health and wellbeing after he sough treatment in rehab.

"My recovery is going very well and for that to continue having spoken to Dec and ITV, I have made the decision to take the rest of the year off. I’d like to thank both Dec and ITV for their continued support and I look forward to getting back to work in the new year," he revealed at the start of March.

I'm A Celebrity: Ant revealed that he won't be back on TV until 2019 [ITV]

During the discussion in Edinburgh, Kevin shared an update about Ant and praised him for focusing on his recovery.

"The good news is he's [Ant is] doing well he's doing everything he should be doing to get better," he said before adding: "We collectively thought let's give it a good enough time off because this thing is a slow procedure so that's what we've decided to do."